Calorie self-control hand-cup beverage label calorie

People who love to drink beverages but are afraid of getting fat now have an additional option to control calories. Starting at the end of last year, the Taipei City Health Bureau took the lead in guiding hand-cup beverage operators nationwide to label the calories of their products. As of the end of September this year, eight chain operators, including "Chichaqu ToGo", "Starbucks", "Dante", "Qingxin Fuquan", "85 Degrees C", "CoCo", "Fresh Tea Road" and "COMEBUY", with a total of 372 stores in Taipei City and 1,861 stores across Taiwan, have responded to the calorie labeling of hand-cup beverages.

People who like to drink hand-shaken beverages now have calorie labels to refer to, which makes it easier to calculate daily calorie intake. (Photography by Huang Zhiwen)

Most hand-shaken drinks can be customized to cater to consumers who are particular about calories. For example, different sweetness levels (no sugar, less sugar, low sugar, normal) and ingredients such as pearls and coconut flakes can be specified, but consumers may have no idea how many calories each serving contains. This time, businesses used screen multimedia, menus, and ordering boards for labeling. Some also combined calorie labeling with product marketing DM, and placed calorie information on the official website for reference. "Qingxin Fuquan" was the first to put it on product labels, marking the different calories of each cup of drink based on consumer customization.

1,861 businesses across Taiwan have introduced calorie labels for hand-shaken beverages, such as combining them with product DMs to make it easier for consumers to read. (Photography by Zhang Yawen)

According to the new version of the daily dietary guidelines, it is recommended that adult males consume 2000-2300 calories a day, and women 1500-1800 calories. A large cup of bubble tea has about 700 calories, which is equivalent to 2 bowls of rice (about 500-700 calories). People who are worried about taking in too many calories can consider choosing pure tea drinks. If you want to increase the flavor, you can choose milk tea made with fresh milk, which has lower calories than the commercially available milk tea made with creamer. You can also reduce sugar, ingredients and choose smaller cups of drinks to reduce calorie intake.

Chen Liqi, director of the Food and Drug Administration of the Taipei City Health Bureau, said that it is not currently mandatory for businesses to provide calorie labels for hand-shaken beverages, but they will actively guide more businesses to join in so that people can record how much they drink and how many calories they have, making it easier for them to control their calorie intake.